Thousands sign Yarralumla planning petition

Residents brave the morning cold to present their petition. Photo by Gary Schafer

YARRALUMLA residents gathered at the historic, but neglected Brickworks in freezing temperatures this morning to present Liberal MLA and local resident Steve Doszpot with a petition of more than 4000 signatures calling on the Government to rethink its 1600 high-density unit development plans for the area.

The member for Molonglo will present the petition to the ACT Assembly later this week.

The petition also questions the ACT Government’s plan to just “make safe” the heritage-listed Brickworks, starving them of the funds needed to preserve them, said Marea Fatseas, president of the Yarralumla Residents Association.

“Residents are not opposed to development,” she said. “We want to work with the ACT Government, the NationalCapital Authority, relevant experts and other stakeholders to come up with a plan that is in character with the existing suburb and addresses major concerns.”

Mr Doszpot said the petition calls for the plans to be reworked to address increased traffic flow, parking issues, green space and appropriate building heights and the impact of the additional influx of 4000 residents.

“The petition is also calling for information and costs for the safe removal of asbestos and other contaminated materials and an explanation of how infrastructure could cope with truck movements,” he said.

“The ACT Labor government should go back to the drawing board and devise a sensible planning solution for Yarralumla residents concerned about proposed development in the suburb.

“The plans for development of land around the Canberra brickworks site are ill-conceived and fail to account for the future impact on residents in Yarralumla and surrounding suburbs including Deakin, Hughes and Curtin. Thousands of people have signed a petition highlighting their concerns and they deserve to be heard.”